Monument record MDO858 - Prehistoric field system, Cheselbourne

Block 2

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 333-334 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘Group (48): Bramblecombe (Cheselbourne, and nearby areas in Dewlish, Hilton, Milborne and Milton Abbas. See map on p. 334). 'Celtic' fields, generally much disturbed and mostly ploughed over, but including prominent earthworks, are traceable over some 400 acres of Chalk, widely capped by Clay-with-flints, between the Devil's Brook on the W. (about 300 ft. O.D.), the Cheselbourne/Milton parish boundary on the E., Coombe Hill, Hilton, on the N. (667 ft. O.D.), and Dewlish Mill on the S. They are described below in blocks from N. to S. although they were probably continuous and formerly continued in all directions, as did an outlying and greatly disturbed block of some 20 acres E. of West Bagber Copse (around SY 792996) in Milton Abbas parish, crossing the boundary with Milborne. Fields where preserved had sides up to at least 70 yds. long. Areas were up to 1½ acres. Forms apparently triangular in block (i) are not original.

Settlements cannot be located with certainty in the main area, but there are several notable features. In block (ii) are a bank (a) cut by the Cheselbourne/Hilton parish boundary, a very disturbed area (b), and a well-preserved and unusual stretch of double-lynchet track. Block (iii) contains a small roughly rectangular enclosure (c) of unknown date. Coarse potsherds, Iron Age or Romano-British, as well as samian, were found in the area of (a) and (b) as well as elsewhere on the fields. Undated and complex features with elements later than 'Celtic' fields include remains of massive scarps associated with ditches or tracks at about ST 77530075. These bound an almost rectangular area of ½ acre on a slope of 17° cut by hollow-ways and present hedges E. of Cheselbourne Mill, W. of the area shown on p. 334. 'Celtic' fields lie immediately E. A bank and ditch, later than the 'Celtic' fields, formerly enclosed Combe Bottom (block (i)). Secondary disturbance by an unusual form of ridge-and-furrow ploughing occurred in Bramblecombe (block (ii)). An almost certain settlement of Roman date lies close to the Bagber fields on the E. (Milton Abbas (26)). Round barrows in the area are along the sides of fields or at their angles; in areas of great disturbance such as S.W. of Common Barn (block (ii)) some mounds (not numbered) may be the remains of field angles only.

Block (i), Hilton parish. Some 35 acres of broken 'Celtic' fields remain in and around Coombe Bottom, with traces ½ mile N. on Coombe Hill at 778025. Scarps N. of Coombe Bottom are up to 20 ft. high, but there is no complete pattern and a line of probably later ploughing marking the N. shoulder is responsible for a sharply triangular field shape. Below this field, at 77670173, is an unexplained rounded 'platform' 90 ft. by 25 ft. with scarp up to 30 ft. high. There has been much quarrying. The valley bottom, covering some 9 acres and including faint traces of 'Celtic' fields, is largely contained by an enclosure (32), shown on the Tithe Map of 1842 and partly shown on O.S. maps; it has a bank and an uphill ditch, each about 8 ft. across, the ditch being 2 ft. deep. The ditch cuts through 'Celtic' field lynchets.

Block (ii), immediately S. of (i), includes Bramblecombe, around 778013, with prominent earthwork remains, and the area E. and S. of it to the parish boundary with Milton (see p. 334). A double-lynchet track is prominent, running W. at the head of the coombe. The upper lynchet is absent in the lower parts of the valley head, where there is a plantation and some disturbance. Its gentle curve, rising around the slope, and some wear of the track, perhaps due to re-use, give a false impression of constructed banks. Air photographs show that it probably continued S. to a point E. of area (b), opening into a splay at 78170123. A faint scarp marks its continuation N. from Bramblecombe. The disturbed remains of roughly rectangular fields that covered Bramblecombe were seen to have been ploughed over by very low ridge-and-furrow about 11 yds. wide. This swept up the N. valley side, on slopes of 19°, marking the final destruction of substantial lynchets along the contour. Other lynchets survive up to 6 ft. high. A barrow, Hilton (30), is placed on the line of a field edge which it probably pre-dates. About 120 yds. S.W. of this, at 77670127, a ploughed bank (a) occurs in an area covered by Clay-with-flints; it is up to 4 ft. high and 30 ft. wide and it curves gently for 110 ft. S.W. from, parallel with and then sharply towards the parish boundary, which crosses it. The bank appears to be part of an enclosure integral with the 'Celtic' field system, possibly developed from a field. Area (b), at 78020115, is an uneven area of uncertain extent, formerly much ploughed. It is on an almost flat shoulder with ground rising gently E. and N.; here, in an area of Claywith-flints, samian fragments have been found amongst very faint 'Celtic' field traces (Dorset Procs., 76 (1956), 76). Between this area and the parish boundary with Milton Abbas the Tithe Map shows that in 1841 there were 47 'furze allotment' strips; these, however, do not correspond with marks on air photographs. To the S. of this, E. of Common Barn (78200064), are faint traces of 'Celtic' fields together with an unexplained strip 130 yds. by 10 yds., its S.W. end at 78320060. Earthwork remains W. and S.W. of Common Barn (on very flinty broken-up ground where there is an exposure showing 1 ft. of Clay-with-flints on the Chalk) include narrow rig, mounds of uncertain origin, and relatively late banks in an area where 'Celtic' fields were once widespread. Romano-British and possibly earlier pottery has been found on the fields (Dorset Procs., 76 (1956), 76–7). Former ploughing and land divisions have broken or confused the original pattern. An apparent double-lynchet track 20 yds. from Common Barn, parallel with its S. side, might result from unconnected phases of activity, as might the flinty bank extending nearly 400 yds. W. from this to meet a modified 'Celtic' field lynchet. A mound 45 yds. S. of the double-lynchet, jutting W. from the present hedge, is spur-like, measures 20 ft. across its top, and falls 3 ft. to S. and W. A mound 370 yds. S.W. of this, at 780004, could be a flinty field angle or a barrow at a field angle. Some 370 yds. further S.W. is a disturbed fragment, probably of a double-lynchet, up to 15 ft. high, apparently marking a track from the Devil's Brook; it has been buried by ploughsoil at the N.E. end.

Block (iii), continuous with the foregoing at the S. of the group, in Milton Abbas and Dewlish parishes, has remains which are generally less disturbed, but on Woodsdown there has been much secondary ploughing. This has broken down 'Celtic' field divisions, but in places has left the stubs of the field sides. In this area is a ploughed-over trapezoidal enclosure (c), about 75 ft. by 42 ft.; it is defined by a probably 'Celtic' lynchet falling 2 ft. from its longest side on S.W., and elsewhere by a low bank up to 12 ft. across. Further S., where crossed by the Milton/ Dewlish parish boundary and southwards, the fields on the 100 ft.-high slope rising E. from the Devil's Brook are relatively well-preserved, with lynchets up to 6 ft. high.
Air photographs: CPE/UK 1934: 1150–3, 2109–14, 3107–10, 5108–10; 1974: 2365–7.’

Record last edited

Nov 7 2017 1:23PM